id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
2yq2w8 | When things fall into a black hole, why does it not built up enough kinetic energy to come back to the original position? | [
{
"answer": "There are a couple of ways to look at it. One way is that the potential well for say, a pendulum has finite depth. A black hole is has a singularity, the potential well has infinite depth so you will never cross it and go back up.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Orbital mechanics w... | null |
9zavo6 | what is the difference between the anti-inflammatory effects of chemicals like curcumin versus nsaids like ibuprofen? | [
{
"answer": "I think they both lead to the same thing. You can just increase your turmeric intake in your food for the same effect that you'd have in a supplement or a pill. The pill is a specific, calculated, dose whereas you don't know the exact quantity of chemical you're getting in the food. ",
"provena... | null |
mvlkm | When you look at a star in the sky, is it in the actual location you see, or is it really in a different position due to the time it takes light to travel to Earth? | [
{
"answer": "Just think of it this way. You aren't seeing the star, you're seeing the light the star gave off. However many thousand/million years ago that light left the star is what you're seeing.\n\nAnd as long as the universe is expanding and moving as the doppler effect shows, then yeah, that star is in a ... | null |
6dnedg | What is the maximum achievable Data transfer rate from Mars to Earth? | [
{
"answer": "[500 To 32000 bits per second, according to the nasa website.](_URL_2_)\n\nThe variance is primarily because, the distance between mars and earth varies. In more detail, [the communications channel between earth and mars is essentially modeled by an AWGN channel (PDF, great read on the history of d... | null |
5npttd | why does the brain tend to constantly play music on its own ? | [
{
"answer": "I don't recall source but your brain will repeat songs because it's trying to figure out what comes next. Listening to the song in its entirety is said to fix this, i.e. help your brain figure out what's next. I'll find some sources if anyone's interested!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
8ctofm | Do cold/flu viruses mutate during a cold? | [
{
"answer": "Cold(family: *picornaviridae* genus: *rhinovirus*)and flu viruses(family: *orthomyxoviridae* genera: *influenzavirus A*, *B* and *C*)are dramatically different in mutability and genome organization, so the means by which one mutates will not be the same as the other. \n\nRecombination events from b... | null |
ymogt | in artist collaborations, what's the difference between featuring, versus, and with? | [
{
"answer": "Versus: is usually a head to head battle. Real time call and response. A guitar head cutting duel or quite simply a mashup remix.\n\nFeaturing: Usually involves song composed and recorded by one artist and they call out to a friend to do a bit of sessions. If the artist good enough its a feature. O... | null |
6j7hvb | Is there a school of historical thought that disagrees that the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan were necessary? | [
{
"answer": "Not to discourage new answers, but there have been some excellent responses to similar questions in the past:\n\n/u/Restricteddata gave us a fascinating response to [\"Did the US have to nuke Japan?\"](_URL_2_)\n\n/u/t-o-k-u-m-e-i provides a long answer about [the \"nuke vs soviets\" debate here.](... | null |
cvvn1w | what exactly is happening when you run games/media at 1080p on a 4k tv? | [
{
"answer": "Your 4K TV is 3840 pixels wide and 2160 pixels high. The image you're feeding it is only 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high. If three quarters of your screen isn't black bars, then that image is being upscaled somewhere.\n\nTypically what's happening is your output device (PC, streaming box etc)... | null |
a8boy5 | Why doesn't the Earth's elliptical orbit affect its temperature (Cause Seasons)? | [
{
"answer": "There are a few reasons:\n\nFirst, 5 million km seems like a lot, but it's not that much compared to the average orbital radius of about 150 million km.\n\nSecond, the effect of the planet's tilt isn't related to one side being further away as much as it is one side being at more of an angle with r... | null |
e9omie | why do third world countries often seem to have such low costs of living? | [
{
"answer": "The largest cost we have in 1st worod countries generally is labor. Things are very expensive in comparison because you have to pay workers more so production, transportation, and distribution all costs significantly more.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Labour costs. People on the... | null |
5f3cwi | how do smartphones have the whole screen light up? | [
{
"answer": "The screen is composed of multiple layers. The top layer is the glass. Below that is the pixel array that creates the colors you see on screen. Below that is what's called a diffuse layer, which is usually a piece of semi-transparent plastic with a texture kind of like frosted glass. Behind tha... | null |
67oekt | why have built-in webcam covers not surged in popularity yet? | [
{
"answer": "I think offering a built-in cover would be perceived as an acknowledgement that the product is not entirely secure in its own right.\n\nIt's like selling a house with bars on the windows. Makes you wonder what's wrong with the neighborhood. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > Can ... | null |
6b76wh | How is an SD card a limiting factor for transfer speed? | [
{
"answer": "An SD card is composed broadly of flash memory (an array of transistor-pairs) and a controller. Both of those can impose limitations on transfer speed.\n\nAs for the flash memory itself, because its storing the data in transistors, the frequency of switching for a transistor depends on the construc... | null |
2yxeyt | why doesn't the world get rid of borders? | [
{
"answer": "Sure, let's start by following my rules. Oh, you want to make rules too? Well I don't like your ideas so we will never merge.\n\nNow try integrating a country ruled by a religious dictator who's citizens believe (under penalty of death) that his dictates are authorized by God? How about a country t... | null |
2pmgb0 | medieval nobility | [
{
"answer": " > How did the system of nobility and peasanthood arise? \n\nIt arose in many, many places and even in the same places many times again and again over history. There's no one answer other than something general like: \"The guy with the most weapons and folks to hold them said it'd be like that.\"\n... | null |
328acm | Why do we refer to China as "Song", "Han", and others instead of the "Chinese Empire"? | [
{
"answer": "Actually they are referred to as dynasties--the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, etc., just as one refers to Komnenian dynasty--all defined by a familial succession of rulers, e.g. the house of Zhao for the Song. \"Song Empire\" is essentially a contraction of \"the empire of the Song Dynasty.\" The Byz... | null |
89i0ne | how do we synchronize our pace when walking next to someone? | [
{
"answer": "I'm pretty sure that's only true for people of similar height.\n\nMy girlfriend is a good 10 inches shorter than me, and so when we walk \"together\", she takes many short steps and I take longer steps.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikip... | null |
24zm3x | can animals get concussions like humans? and if so are the consequences similar? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, they can and do. It can be harder to tell, and we don't usually send them for MRI/CT to confirm, so a lot of them go misdiagnosed. But animals with head trauma will become nauseous, lose consciousness, loss of balance, signs of partial blindness, etc, all the same kind of signs we'd expect in ... | null |
hbiy7 | Is it possible to un-polarize polarized light? | [
{
"answer": "All light is polarized, all the time. What you're thinking of is the process of shining light through a polarizer, which is noting more or less than a filter. It permits photons with a particular polarization to pass through, and scatters the rest. So what comes out the other side are photons that ... | null |
1mh7s0 | how does orajel and other numbing gels work? | [
{
"answer": "Orajel is actually made up of a substance called Benzocaine, which interacts with open nerve endings that sense pain. Benzocaine will basically stops the nerve from sending those impulses of pain by blocking something called a Voltage Dependant Sodium Channel, something important to block because a... | null |
4vd2vw | When I pour cream into my coffee, a small amount skates across the surface away from the point of entry. What causes this? | [
{
"answer": "Argh, this is frustrating! I saw a great talk on this phenomenon at a scientific conference a couple of years ago, but I can't remember the name of the author and a literature search is coming up empty, so I can't cite my sources as required by /r/askscience. I'm going to give the story as I reme... | null |
26nu32 | birds in the northern hemisphere migrate south for the winter. are there birds from the southern hemisphere that migrate north for the summer? what species are they? | [
{
"answer": "Many species of migratory birds breed in Alaska. That's why that proposal to drill for oil in that wildlife refuge was such a big deal.\n\nEdit: The Whimbrel is a good example. It breeds in Alaska and winters as far south as Africa and South America. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
6csavd | why does it seem like there are 'cycles' of terrorism? | [
{
"answer": "Your question is really about perception. Terrorism, to a large extent, has become less about gigantic coordinated attacks like 9/11 and the Madrid train bombings, and generally gotten simpler and simpler until it is an individual or a handful of guys with guns shooting everyone in a confined space... | null |
1yv2ir | why are people attracted to furries? | [
{
"answer": "People are funny. different strokes for different folks. It's theoretically possible to be attracted to literally anything. Some people just happen to be attracted to furries. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "86967",
... | null |
19f4t7 | Black Hole Escape Velocity and the "Graviton" | [
{
"answer": "The escape velocity angle on why black holes are inescapable is slightly misleading. The Earth's escape velocity is about 11km/s but an object can escape from Earth at any speed if it has some mechanism for generating thrust during its journey.\n\nBlack holes are inescapable because gravity curves ... | null |
3omv11 | will they ever go after the actual person(s) who wrote and built the code for volkswagen to cheat the emissions testing? | [
{
"answer": "When a company does something wrong, you sue the company, not the CEO, or the manager, or the engineer. This is what's called corporate personhood. So no, they won't go after the person who wrote the code. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "While you're at it, give me the name of the... | null |
4eo5jl | When did humans start falling in love? | [
{
"answer": "It's an interesting question, but I believe the vagueness of it is why it didn't get answered. First you have to define what love is, then you have to define what monogamy is. I'll put my own answer at the bottom if you don't want to read everything in between.\n\nIs love a deep rooted emotion of... | null |
eex3zu | how do trees start out as flimsy sprouts but then change into hard wood? | [
{
"answer": "You have heard the saying that if you cut down a tree, you can count the rings to see how old it is. \n\nEvery year the tree builds another layer onto itself, creating a new ring, thus getting taller, thicker and more sturdy as time goes on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
brjqyn | how do tuning forks stay in tune, and can they ever go out of tune? | [
{
"answer": "When struck the metal reverberates in such a way to produce the correct frequency, the correct tune.\n\nAs for if they can go out of tune? Probably not likely that one youd use would. It would require the metal to become deformed or chipped in some way so that it doesnt rattle the same way.",
"... | null |
oybql | What was the role of the U.K. within the Cold War? | [
{
"answer": "In general terms they were a major anti-submarine warfare component of NATO, also some combat units in West Germany and a few nuclear weapons (unguided air dropped and submarine launched missiles).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In the very funny and insightful British show \"Yes,... | null |
5p2aha | how did cantonese and mandarin end up with the same characters, but completely different spoken languages? | [
{
"answer": "The characters / letters in mandarin work very differently from how English words do. In mandarin the characters have a meaning like \"big\" but it doesn't mean \"big\" this is great since the Chinese empire can then have someone taking notes from one person, send them to another way elsewhere and ... | null |
1s8d6y | does the brain use more energy while dreaming due to the fact that it's synthesizing sensations, characters, locations etc.? | [
{
"answer": "No. Even though it might work on the things you mention, it stops worrying about all motor control, doesn't have to worry about sensory input to the same degree, doesn't need to process nearly as much information, it's very quiet up there.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"... | null |
1d13a4 | what happened to the simpsons? why do people talk about it going downhill? what changed? | [
{
"answer": "The show didn't change much. People changed.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[The Simpsons Is Still Funny - Pt. 1](_URL_0_) \n\n[The Simpsons Is Still Funny, Part 2](_URL_1_)\n\nThose videos do a fairly good job of explaining it, basically people grew up and the pop culture changed... | null |
2slcjw | how do opiates like heroin work? | [
{
"answer": "in the central nervous system (brain and spinal chord) as well as the enteric system (intestinal) there are receptors that bind to normal chemicals (endogenous substances called enkaphalins, which are involved in pain pathways and emotion) in the body. Opioids bind to subtype of these receptors (mu... | null |
8vnxw7 | why are some children so resistant to eating? | [
{
"answer": "There are a LOT of potential answers to this, and I expect that others will have better explanations. However:\n\n\\- A major and important point of child development is learning to say \"no\" -- essentially, learning that you have control over your own body and are that you are capable of setting ... | null |
3nmdgp | If you had a 343 meter long pole, and pushed one end, would it take one second for the other side to move? | [
{
"answer": "No, as the speed of sound in a pole is not the same as in air. But yes, pushes do propagate at the speed of sound. In steel this would be 5300 m/s.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "No, it will actually be a much shorter time, but the exact time depends on the speed of sound throug... | null |
1path0 | In the pre-modern era, did armies really stop fighting in the winter? | [
{
"answer": "Generally, war did stop in the winter mainly due to the problems involving health and logistics. \n\nDuring the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, troops were sent to barracks or quartered in villages to rest and train as marching would have been difficult due to the problems with weather.[^\\[1\\]... | null |
dyz1dd | how do targeted ads from things you've searched on a computer get to your phone? how does the tracking process work? | [
{
"answer": "Is your email attached to both devices? Do you have similar accounts between the two? That's how they do it. It's just spamming the devices attached to your accounts.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Have you ever logged in to the same account of any site on both devices? That in co... | null |
3isx32 | How do we convert potential and kinetic energy into electricity? | [
{
"answer": "You can spin a magnet (kinetic energy) in a coil of electrically conductive wire and generate an electric current (electricity) through the coil of wire.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "9601",
"title": "Electrochemis... | null |
dic37k | what is the importance of 7nm processors? | [
{
"answer": "yes. smaller processors. better performance.\n\nimagine drawing a schematic with a bingo marker. your lines will big and fat and you won't be able to make many wires. now use a sharpie. better lines but still pretty fat. now use a fine tip marker. you're able to make more finer lines th... | null |
2b0c92 | why am i so hungry since i've stopped smoking weed? | [
{
"answer": "Did you smoke the weed with tobacco?\nIf so, maybe these are the withdrawal symptoms of the nicotine.\nPlease visit a doctor if you have serious concerns.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Maybe weed was your pass time and now eating is",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
20tous | what's happening with the atoms on a mirror when i step in front of it? | [
{
"answer": "Nothing is happening to the mirror itself. A mirror just bounces photons (light) off of it. If you throw a tennis ball at a wall and it bounces off the wall, the wall hasn't changed at all because the ball bounced off of it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Nothing terribly special ... | null |
2dhrn2 | Are there instances of musicians or music playing an instrumental role in the success of a military battle? | [
{
"answer": "You're thinking of the Battle of Gaixia, the end of the Chu-Han civil(?) war. The Han forces surrounded the Chu, and played Chu music to remind the weary soldiers of their families. The Chinese idiom 四面楚歌 (literally, \"Chu music on all sides\") is now used to indicate being stuck in a terrible situ... | null |
4g4wc3 | How much would various medieval items/buildings cost to make/procure in todays money? I.E building a castle, A suit of armor, a sword, chainmail and the padded fabric armors | [
{
"answer": "A few pieces from *The Knight and the Blast Furnace*.\n\nA 9th century Frankish warrior would pay 12 Solidi (an ox was worth about 2 solidi) for his mail armour and another 12 for the rest of his arms (helmet, shield, sword and spear).\n\nAn early 14th century Flemish knight would pay 10-20 pounds ... | null |
1wkbuw | Is there a limit to the amplitude of sound waves? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Sound is a pressure wave, and at high enough pressure a given material with change phase. Gases change to plasma, liquid or solid, for example, depending on the temperature, pressure, and amplitude. For a solid, at high enough pressures it will eventually form neutron-degenerate matter, or ev... | null |
396zdf | Was there notable opposition to allowing James VI to ascend to the English throne | [
{
"answer": "The main opposition came from English Catholics. The influential exiled Jesuit Robert Persons' popular _Conference about the Next Succession to the Crowne_ (1595) argued in favour of a Catholic successor to Elizabeth. \n\nA few months after James' accession to the English throne, there were two Cat... | null |
2pgtd8 | how do you create a new dog breed in the lapse of a human lifespan? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, humans didn't create a doberman out of thin air. The doberman was bred from several existing breeds of dogs:\n\n > The breed is believed to have been created from several different breeds of dogs that had the characteristics that Dobermann was looking for, including the German Pinsch... | null |
9640we | how is it possible for people with anxiety to express physical symptoms like shaking or imagining chest pain that isn't there? | [
{
"answer": "Muscle contractions and just genereal panic, especially if you aren't used to them. \n\nI have mild anxiety for the most part but the one time I had a full on panic attack, I was sure I was having a heart attack and was dying which of course only made it worse. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
5kvnwk | why are amino acids in living things "left-handed" in their chirality? | [
{
"answer": "We honestly don't know, it's one of the open questions in the field of biology. One possibility is that a supernovae sometime in our planet's past produced radiation with a certain rotation to it, which selectively destroyed right handed amino acids before life even got started here. Since there wo... | null |
7kzsry | How many employees did Pablo Escobar have? | [
{
"answer": "It's really difficult to pin a number on how many \"employees\" were under Escobar's control due to the nature of the Mendellin (Escobar's organization) and Cali cartels. Although these cartels are what are generally described as \"vertical organizations,\" meaning that the manufacture, and distrib... | null |
26anxj | Do artificial sweeteners stimulate the brain's reward pathways like sugar does? | [
{
"answer": "Yes and no.\n\nIf you feed an animal saccharine, or sham-feed sucrose (they eat it, but it doesn't make it to the stomach), you'll get a response in the dopamine \"reward pathway.\" Saccharine-water is tasty to animals, and they prefer it to water.\n\nHowever, when it comes to behavior, things get... | null |
5ptusw | how can someone find me on reddit without my username? | [
{
"answer": "Clarification. Given your verb tense, are we to understand that you've been ID'd in some way? That this happened?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16731003",
"title": "Platinnetz",
"section": "Section::::Prot... | null |
1r1skg | when i breath in is it the air that enters my lung that expands it or is the air entering because i have expanded my lungs by some muscle activity. | [
{
"answer": "Muscles pull down to expand your lungs, creating a vacuum and pulling air in. When those muscles relax, the lungs collapse back to normal atmospheric pressure and all the bonus air leaves.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "124... | null |
6svtog | if uranium is radioactive for millions of years, why do nuclear reactors go through spent rods so quickly? | [
{
"answer": "Being radioactive is not the same as undergoing fission.\n\nThe fact that it is radioactive means that, over time, it will release some form of radiation and decay to a lower energy state ~~(a neutron in Uranium 235's case)~~. The design of the reactors will slow down any neutrons to a speed where ... | null |
375zpq | the charlie charlie challenge. | [
{
"answer": "The best explanation I have found is [here](_URL_0_).\n > You’ve probably heard of using a Ouija board to contact spirits, but I bet you haven’t heard of using pencils to have your questions answered by supernatural beings! The Pencil Game, also called “Charlie, Charlie,” is a traditional Mexican r... | null |
46chla | What was the favored weapons of Native Americans around the time that the English in the Jamestown colony arrived. | [
{
"answer": "This answer is specifically for the Powhatan in Virginia, rather than Native Americans as a whole:\n\nTo start with the bows, they were made of locust or witch hazel and were nearly as tall as the archer himself. Contemporary illustrations usually, but not always, depict them with a slight recurve,... | null |
a4foje | why are most holidays in the fall and winter seasons compared to the spring and summer seasons? | [
{
"answer": "Both of those seasons have a different reason. All of our modern major holidays line up with the old pagan holidays. A few were just thrown in later (looking at you, family day) But most of the established ones have been around for millennia. Autumn has many holidays because of the harvest. Communi... | null |
2kh3xw | why are headaches the symptoms of so many illnesses? | [
{
"answer": "Your brain has very specific needs regarding oxygen and sugar in the blood as well as blood pressure, etc. It is more vulnerable when things begin to go wrong than muscles, bones, etc in the rest of the body are.\nNot only is it vulnerable, the brain is important, so we feel pain when things start ... | null |
mkcwe | Has there ever been scientifically observed heightened sensory activity in people who are blind/deaf etc.? | [
{
"answer": "[Random example of said observation](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[Random example of said observation](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "39151518",
"title": "Neuronal recycling hyp... | null |
2o7nob | how does the internal architecture of a cpu effect the speed it can process things? | [
{
"answer": "I'll start with the nm size. At a very basic level, your CPU is built of billions of little switches, grouped together to perform logical functions (AND, OR, NOR etc.). The way these switches are built are basically two pools of electrons, separated by a non-conducting bridge. On top of that bridge... | null |
1rzc2a | why at a sports game (football, baseball, basketball, etc.) is the away team affected by noise more than the home team? | [
{
"answer": "The fans (ideally) will only be loud when it's advantageous for their team. For instance, in football it's generally considered that the offense needs to communicate a lot more through audibles and the like, so fans will be loud when the opposing team is on offense, quiet when their team is.",
... | null |
49xz3m | How many dresses did a medieval woman have? | [
{
"answer": "I think it would really help to be more specific with this question, \"any medieval\" time period and any (presumably European) country and 4 occupations is simply an obscenely broad spectrum to attempt to answer. Perhaps consider a specific time period such as the High Middle Ages and at least a s... | null |
7usu1j | How effective is the rabies vaccine? Does it confer long-term immunity? | [
{
"answer": "Not all vaccines are protective, some just slow the progression or reduce the signs to reduce transmission or to reduce morbidity/mortality. \n\nRabies is sort of like that. The vaccine does result in serum antibody; however do to the lethality of rabies and studies on the vaccine in animals it’s g... | null |
5szjc8 | What did pirates and imperial naval armies do for sun block? Surely skin cancer was rife? | [
{
"answer": "This has been asked a couple of times before, but the short answer is that most sailors would have worn clothes that covered nearly all their body, even in tropical latitudes, including broad-brimmed hats. Their feet and hands would have been bare, and certainly their faces would have tanned fairly... | null |
1csd8d | What is the cumulative difference in time between Earth and either voyager spacecraft? | [
{
"answer": "[This](_URL_0_) is a related past discussion.\n\n[This](_URL_1_) has some math to give a general idea of how much time dilation the Voyager probes will have experienced.\n\nVoyager I's been travelling for about 35.5 years at about 57,500 km/h, which gives a time dilation ratio of about 0.9999999985... | null |
fh8kqc | The American Civil War is Usually Thought of as Kin vs Kin, Brother vs Brother, Why Don't We Hear This Aspect of other Civil Wars? | [
{
"answer": " > We don't hear this aspect of other Civil Wars\n\nWe do hear about this for other civil wars. A brief superficial basic-facts-only coverage might well not include it, but a more detailed treatment often will. For example, one can read about this in the English Civil War, and in the Thirty Years ... | null |
8gl0u7 | Machiavelli. Anybody enjoy talking about "the Prince" and its author? I'm eager to hear from someone who loves the political figure or hates how he's been inaccurately represented. | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, your question was removed for being out of scope here. From our rules: \n\n > Submissions to /r/AskHistorians must be either:\n\n > * A **question** about the human past\n\n > * A **meta post** about the state of the subreddit. Anyone may start a meta post, but please [check with the moderat... | null |
qjdl6 | How authoritarian Central Asian regimes have managed to maintain power since the 1990s | [
{
"answer": "I don't see anyone really commenting, so I'm just going to throw out an opinion here (informed opinion, but still - an opinion).\n\nNobody gives a shit.\n\nCountries that have minimal natural resources, that are not actively at war, that are poor and in a corner of the world that nobody in the Engl... | null |
3id7pw | How are all of the fossil fuels condensed into certain large areas around the world and not small pools everywhere? | [
{
"answer": "Simplistically speaking, it's because organisms did die in one spot (or a few spots, rather).\n\nTo be more precise - there are tiny pools of oil all over. What we extract is the economically viable ones - the places where there's a relatively large volume in a relatively easy-to-extract situation.... | null |
1gdtcf | Why does peanut butter turn whitish under water? | [
{
"answer": "The oil in the peanut butter is hydrophobic, and thus thin layers of water and oxygen form on the surface where the water gets repelled. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "289786",
"title": "Peanut butter",
"se... | null |
7x9euz | Is it seen as acceptable for historians to describe historical relationships between men and boys as homosexual or gay? | [
{
"answer": "There's a lot of contention about whether it's even acceptable to describe historical relationships between adult men (or, I guess, same-aged boys) as gay or homosexual. or whether those terms are anachronistic/ahistorical/imprecise. This isn't something you're likely to get one answer on. For me, ... | null |
2m3m9t | how can lego and other animated movies that i see all over netflix use spiderman and other characters in their films with the avengers characters when it's a "rights" issue for live action films? | [
{
"answer": "Because Marvel didn't sell the animation rights to Sony. I am sure they would have, if Sony was willing to pay for it. But Sony just wanted to make live action Spiderman movies. Same for Fox and X-Men.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because it's not a matter of ownership, it's... | null |
2qwwg7 | How are "itch" and "pain" perceived differently? | [
{
"answer": "Both pain and itch sensation use the same pathway and are processed in the same center(primary somatosensory cortex). The scratch response and withdrawal response are also processed by the same pre-motor and supplementary cortices.The differences between pain and itch processing do not result from ... | null |
fsnyit | how do you determine the terminal velocity of oddly shaped objects? | [
{
"answer": "It is very difficult to compute, requiring a supercomputer or more commonly simply using a wind tunnel to directly measure. Turbulence of air or other fluids are not simple to figure out.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You drop 'em. Or you put them in an apparatus that simulates d... | null |
7y9byv | What enabled the British to defeat the Marathas so easily during the second Anglo Maratha war, despite being heavily outnumbered in almost every battle?? | [
{
"answer": "When you strip back the raw numbers and start looking at quality of the troops on both sides in conflicts between company forces and Indian armies they are roughly similar. At Assaye the Marathas had 10,000 infantry trained in the European style of warfare. The company had 9000. The rest of the Mar... | null |
5xgx1a | Which period of time were people most promiscuous? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow [\"example seeking\" questions](_URL_1_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or per... | null |
jng9g | If I fell from a plane and reached terminal velocity over a large body of water, is there any position and/or angle at which I should try to hit water so as to increase my chances for survival? | [
{
"answer": "As I recall, they did something like this on Mythbusters. The conclusion was that you're toast no matter what.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The only position I can think of that may help you is being snugly attached to a functioning and deployed parachute. ",
"provenance": n... | null |
56lwcc | what is that distinct smell that happens when using a vacuum cleaner? | [
{
"answer": "It's ozone (O*_3_*)\n\nElectric motors use wire brushes/threads to keep electricity flowing through the moving motor and the stationary frame. They generate sparks, which can disrupt oxygen molecules (O*_2_*) and cause them to gain an extra oxygen atom.\n\nOzone is poisonous but also unstable so un... | null |
2lmxc1 | Does cauterization of open surface wounds reduce or increase the risk of infection in the long run? | [
{
"answer": " > What I'm looking for an answer to is whether the initial benefits of the heat killing of microorganisms is offset by the increased long-term risk of infection\n\nIn terms of infection, deeply burned skin is nearly as vulnerable to infection as an open wound, and the \"benefit\" of heat steriliz... | null |
1r2xu4 | How do we figure out the rotational period of distant stars? | [
{
"answer": "For stars whose axis of rotation is not pointing toward us, we can measure the light (spectra) of the left and right sides of the stars. Since one side is moving away from us, and the other is moving toward us, there is a shift in the spectra (similar to the doppler shift that causes a car coming ... | null |
2i9nn2 | how does somebody develop paranoid schizophrenia? | [
{
"answer": "Although it isn't really understood, as is the case with a lot of mental health conditions, there is a lot fo evidence that it is largly genetic. \n\nHowever a genetic predisposition to the condition isn't a gaurentee that a person will develop it, and there is suggestion that it generally presents... | null |
1otxjd | When we are cold, why does vasoconstriction occur and what part of the brain initiates it? (curiosity, not homework :P) | [
{
"answer": "Vasoconstriction is the narrowing of the blood vessles. This minimises the amount of heat radiated out of the body and thus is a function of homeostasis in maintain optimum core body temperature. It's initated by the hypothalamus in the brain.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
uz7g2 | why do i need a video card? | [
{
"answer": "Most calculations on a computer are handled by what CPU, the Central Processing Unit. This handles most things for most users without difficulty, and primarily operates on the concept of have a few very powerful cores. Most processors now are dual-core or quad-core.\n\nThere's an optional component... | null |
1vcptv | how men became the dominating sex in almost every society? | [
{
"answer": "Throughout our history men have been in control because it was the men who were stronger. The strong control the weaker, whether that's weaker men or women in general. Throughout history women spent much of their time pregnant. Being pregnant came with the need to be looked after. ",
"prove... | null |
3opbkc | why do android phones wipe their battery statistics when restarted at > 90% battery? | [
{
"answer": "Restarting a phone clears the memory and closes all apps that were open. When the phone restarts, it re-calculates the battery percentage based on the current usage. Not sure if that answers your question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wi... | null |
1ict3e | can somebody explain computer specs to me, and what to look for when purchasing a new machine? | [
{
"answer": " > and was always impressed by people who could tell the functionality of a computer simply by looking through its specifications.\n\nI don't really know how else you'd determine how good a computer is without touching it.\n\nAnd in response to your question, what do you plan on doing with it? If y... | null |
imjhx | Panelists: Which books have you found most interesting as a layman (non-expert?) | [
{
"answer": "I know I only mentioned books in the title, but I am also interested in documentaries or museums. Since Sir David Attenborough retired, I haven't seen any stirring documentaries. The most interesting museum I have seen so far is the Smithsonian exhibit on evolution.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
1tj4ys | why do so many reporters use bad puns? | [
{
"answer": "I just spent 10 minutes looking out my window trying to think of the perfect pun. I feel like I failed. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Humor is a good thing to use to engage your audience, but it can be risky. A joke might only make sense to a certain group of people or might eve... | null |
3vzlh8 | How did the ancient Mediterranean build their huge ships without drydocks? | [
{
"answer": "You'll want to take a look at Casson's *Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World* and *Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times*, if you're looking for material. In point of fact the Romans very much had drydocks, in which larger ships might be built. But the vast majority of ships were built on land ... | null |
8cn5k2 | Is it possible to create a molecule containing a noble gas ? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, Nobel gases can bond to other atoms, some examples are listed here. Note that most listed are with heavier nobel gasses _URL_0_\n\nIm not sure about helium, though the article does mention an HeH^+ cation reported in 1925. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's possible, but di... | null |
21k0t6 | what's going on in turkey and why are websites like youtube and twitter being banned? | [
{
"answer": "Just as we have seen in countless countries, the government is corrupt . People are exposing the corruption on social media outlets. so they are being blocked to avoid that and so people can't see it. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipe... | null |
32mz1c | how do people who release leaks on to torrent websites originally obtain them ex. game of thrones | [
{
"answer": "Usually reviewers receive advance copys of something to review.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's three reasons why TV shows or any other media is leaked:\n\n- The production crew is huge usually hundreds of people. Someone such as an intern could easily steal a tape from an ... | null |
8142o3 | how are pills tested to determine their side effects? | [
{
"answer": "Human testing, animal testing etc. They discovered that a specific heart medication actually helped with ED. That became viagra",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Clinical Trials.\n\nDuring one phase of the clinical trial, you need to give your drug/medicine to random people who are n... | null |
8da3vu | - viruses and cancer | [
{
"answer": "Yes, it can. In fact, the Human Papilloma Virus is one of the leading causes of Cervical Cancer in women.\n\nViruses that lead to cancer are classed together as DNA or RNA Oncoviruses.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes. Cancer is a term for a large number of diseases with rapid c... | null |
6iimhd | how much credit (or blame) can be assigned to film directors for the overall quality of a film? | [
{
"answer": "The director on any movie is limited by the creative control given to him/her. Generally, the directors who have limited experience, but have big budgets, have very little control over the general direction of the movie. The control is taken away by producers and executive producers. On the other ... | null |
27nb9q | [Biology] What is the real difference between something like a lobster and a bug? | [
{
"answer": "Lobsters, crabs, shrimp, insects, and \"bugs\" are all members of the phylum _arthropoda_. Phyla are a very broad classification of creatures below only Kingdoms in the scientific classification scheme.\n\nCrabs, shrimp and lobsters are all crustaceans, which is a subphylum of arthropoda. Insects... | null |
20qb0d | Communism/Socialism, etc | [
{
"answer": " > Communism is just one form of socialism.\n\nWell, that much is true.\n\n > The Nazis were socialists and so were the Russians they fought against.\n\nThis tends to be a talking point that gets rehashed over and over again. I would summarize it as follows, once you get over the fact that they w... | null |
7oevts | why does alcohol (isopropyl) evaporate so much faster than other liquids than say water? | [
{
"answer": "Well thats a very relative question. It is a liquid at room temperature, which puts its boiling temperature above that of any gases. Water has a higher one, wood/metal has a higher one still.\n\nThe boiling point is determined by the intramolecular forces in the liquid state. They are weaker than w... | null |
meg4k | Why did the pages of my book wrinkle as they dried after I dropped it in the toilet? | [
{
"answer": "You know how napkins/toilet paper/tissues tend to completely disintegrate when you let them soak in water for a while? That's what's happening, but on a smaller scale.\n\nThe presence of water in paper disrupts the intermolecular forces that hold individual cellulose molecules together. So instead ... | null |
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